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Monthly Archives: October 2015

Our Orange County DUI Lawyers have learned about several OC DUI checkpoints, planned by law enforcement, for this Halloween weekend. NOTE: Updated with DUI Checkpoint Location for Costa Mesa tonight, at Harbor Eastbound approaching Adams.

Halloween can be especially dangerous when combined with drinking, for not only drivers, but also pedestrians. The book “Superfreakonomics” (Leavitt, et al.) went into great detail why drinking and walking was actually more deadly under all statistics vs. drinking and driving. According to the NHTSA’s most recent statistics on Halloween:

50% of pedestrians die from a drunk driving accident (33% on an average day).

28% of crash victim fatalities are pedestrians (14% on an average day).

Approximately 20% of pedestrian fatalities on Halloween involve a drunk driver.

Over 50% of pedestrian fatalities occur between 4pm and midnight.

One statistic shows that when Halloween falls on a Saturday, like it does this year, probation violations from alcohol related cases jumps to 75%, vs. 17% on a regular year.

Here’s the DUI checkpoint in Orange County activity for this Halloween:

The City of Costa Mesa has a DUI checkpoint planned for tonight, October 30th. A driver tipped us off that it is going strong tonight at Eastbound Harbor approaching Adams in Costa Mesa.

The City of Huntington Beach announced a DUI checkpoint planned for tonight, October 30th, 2015.

The City of Brea has a DUI checkpoint planned for tonight, October 30th.

The City of Dana Point announced a DUI checkpoint planned for tonight, October 30th, 2015.

If you have any questions or need representation or advise from one of the top rated DUI lawyers in Orange County, contact our firm anytime at (877) 942-3090.

A good friend told me that Costa Mesa has more rehabs per square mile than any other place on Earth. Certainly, along with Laguna Beach Rehabs, and Newport Beach Rehab Centers, and with sober living homes and other similar programs in Orange County, Palm Springs, and beyond, there are many.

Not on his or her way to an Orange County sober living home.

According to the City of Costa Mesa, as of early last year (2014), there were 200 rehabilitation or sober living homes in the city. 25% of all the rehabs and treatment facility, and sober living homes, are all in Costa Mesa.

Costa Mesa in particular has niches catering to specific drugs, drug and alcohol combinations, gay, lesbian, transgender, and transsexual addiction problems, and pregnant addict treatment, among many other niches.

The Orange County Register last week had an article about how the proliferation of drug rehab programs and sober living homes in residential neighborhoods had caused the Costa Mesa City Council and City Staff to begin both passing laws, and aggressively expanding the new regulations across the city.

According to the article, 84 sober living homes or rehabs have opened in Costa Mesa have opened since January, 2014. The new laws prohibit sober living homes from moving from one area to another to avoid regulation as well, and require a 650 foot buffer between facilities and require mandatory employee background checks, along with many other rules. A license is also required by the City of Costa Mesa.

One rehab, Yellowstone Women’s First Step House, had sued Costa Mesa in November 2014, to allege discrimination against addicts. That lawsuit was dismissed in federal court.

Newport Beach had paid out 5.25 million in settlements, plus spent four million in litigation fighting against three sober living facilities when they had sued the City of Newport Beach to challenge a 2008 law requiring extra scrutiny for rehabilitation homes in Newport Beach.

San Clemente passed a law prohibiting all rehab homes and sober living homes from opening in that city.

Certainly, rehabilitation facilities and sober living homes in Orange County have an important role to play. Under California law, a rehab or other facility can give credit for jail time, thus both getting addicts or alcoholics, or those facing serious DUI charges, the help they need, and helping to keep them out of jail, and keeping the jails free. A rehabilitated addict is less likely to offend, and jails do not even attempt to rehabilitate those punished for DUI or other crimes.

Orange County Community Service

Community service for an Orange County DUI case is done at your discretion, based upon what days of the week you have available, and what your interests are. Community service from the courts is done through One OC (formerly known as The Volunteer Center), which is a non profit that coordinates charity needs in Orange County.

They have an exhaustive list of all the approved options in Orange County. You can work at a homeless shelter, a battered woman’s shelter, or a pet shelter. You can work at a food bank or a soup kitchen. There are options helping to clean Orange County beaches, parks, and roadways, or to work for the courts, or the sheriff’s department. There are options that focus on art, or education, or any of a number of other interests.

Not all are seven days a week, but there are options available for each day of the week. So you would choose whatever works with your schedule, and with your interests, and then help charities at your convenience.

Converting Your Fine to Community Service

Court fines you can do via community service, or payments, or any combination of the two. Community service is referred from the court, via order, and referred to the courthouse office of OneOC, which is the volunteer coordinator for the county. They charge a fee of approximately $100. You can visit them at any courthouse or at their main location in Santa Ana, and look through their list of options. Any of the approved programs are available, and they have a wide variety, including soup kitchens, beach clean up, battered women’s shelters, pet shelters, helping the Sheriff’s Department, working in OC Parks, etc.

For every six to eight hour shift, you get $200 off your fines, which comes out to $25 per hour or more. If you make payments, they allow you to pay as low as $50 per month, and as mentioned, you can do any combination of both community service and payments.

You wouldn’t be able to do community service in lieu of giving DNA in Orange County. The DNA is offered to have one or more of the counts dismissed.

Unfortunately, while you can convert a fine to community service, you can’t convert a jail sentence, or community service sentence to an increased fine and get out of doing the community service.

If you are interested in doing community service in lieu of jail time, you will usually find that the courts will be less likely to order any type of community service that is not physical labor, like Cal Trans.

Contact our Orange County DUI Law Firm. If you have any questions about community service in Orange County, or regarding Orange County DUI cases, please feel free to email the firm at info[at]expertlawfirm.com, or call us anytime, toll free, at (877) 942-3090.

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